In Search of the Midnight Sun - Chapter 6

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In Search of the Midnight Sun - Chapter 6 The Kenai
August 12, 2008 - Prince of Wales Sound
We headed south out of Anchorage about 8 AM intending to drive to the Kenai River area. Larry usually checks the weather in the morning and he said it is supposed to be a nice day - somewhat overcast and about 60F but that the rest of the week said 60% chance of showers. So, as navigator, I knew Whittier was only 60 miles away and that’s where we planned to do a glacier cruise on our way back out of the penninsula. So we decided, let’s do the cruise today. It’s great to be versatile. I had a brochure in the truck (I have a mini library on the dash in front of me) and phoned the cruise company we wanted to see if we could book the glacier cruise. No problem, in fact if I booked on the phone I would save $40 each. Luckily we are travelling in August, not July, and there doesn’t seem to be any problems with booking tours, campgrounds etc. To get to Whittier, you have to go through a two and one half mile, one way tunnel. There are scheduled times for passing each way, but we easily made the 10:30 AM tunnel and from there it’s only a couple miles into Whittier. So we took our time on the drive down on the Seward Highway as it is a really beautiful scenic byway on the Cook Inlet so we had time to stop at a few pulloffs. The cruise was at 1 PM and was a 26 glacier cruise by Phillips Cruise line on the Klondike Express which also guaranteed no sea sickness (the big seller for me). It was a big two level Catamaran and the sights were OMG awesome! Although it was high cloud, the captain said he was sure we’d have sun at the glaciers. In fact, wherever there were glaciers, the sun peeked through. Unbelievable? Apparently the huge amount of ice draws the moisture out of the air and the sun will show through. It was amazing. We didn’t really see a big calving but saw small chunks fall a few times. Of course we took tons of pictures, so get the popcorn ready friends and neighbors!
We left Whittier in time to make the 6pm tunnel and again had a change of plans. We overheard some people talking about how beautiful Seward was and all the attractions there. So instead of heading south, to the Sterling Highway to Kenai, we went to Seward. We stayed about 6 miles north at the Bear Creek Campground. It had a bar and a continental breakfast! Pretty good for a campground hey! Also we saw a really odd red bus that was like a bus in the front half and had sleeping compartments in the back half. Do you suppose it’s the one you guys saw Carole? We were told it came from Germany and held 24 people. In the winter it tours Mexico.

August 13, 2008 - Seward
Yes - it is definitely worth the 38 mile detour! They have a wonderful Sea Life Center. It is a $50 million facility built on money from the Exxon Valdez oil spill settlement. It is the biggest sea life research center in Alaska and there are numerous aquariums with various sea life in them. We went to a talk about the life cycle of salmon and the different species. They are also doing a lot of research on climate change and how it is affecting sea life.
Also we walked a mile up to the Exit Glacier to get a closer look at an actual glacier. It has receded an unbelievable amount. As you walk up the trail, they have signs up showing where it came to in various years. The interesting thing is it has receded as much from the years 1917 to 1926 as it did in the last decade. So is it global warming or a natural warming cycle that the earth in in??
And the shopping was great! Wait till you see our soapstone Grizzly!
We left Seward at 5pm and drove to Sterling. Finally on our way south down the peninsula.

August 14, 2008
This morning we drove along the Kenai River to Kenai City. The Kenai Penninsula is called “the playground of Anchorage” so we ran into a lot more traffic and a more populated area than the other remoter regions of Alaska. The Kenai River is called a world class sporting river for salmon. The world record King Salmon at 97.25 lbs. was caught here in 1985. At this time of year, the silvers are running and we stopped and watched a group of people fishing from the shore. They were catching a lot of pinks but the silvers were harder to get. Sort of like pickerel and jack at home. The limit was 2 silvers per day and 5 pinks. It was interesting but we aren’t interested in fishing as Larry says he had his fishing trip for salmon and halibut in June when he went to Campbell River, BC. We went to Kenai Landing and saw the old cannery.
After lunch, we drove southwest 60 miles to Homer. Homer is on Kachemak Bay in the Cook Inlet. Across the inlet you can see some volcanic mountains on the Aleutian chain. Some are active volcanoes that spew smoke and ash occasionally. Homer is primarily a commercial and sport fishing town with charter fishing boats catering to people from all over North America and beyond. They fly into Anchorage and many rent RV’s. We’ve seen many rental RV’s (Class B’s) in Alaska. The most famous attraction is the Spit, a finger of land 4.5 miles long stretching into the ocean. It is just wide enough for a road with small shops, restaurants and fishing charter businesses on each side. During the 1964 earthquake the spit sank 4 to 6 feet and would be an island if they hadn’t kept building up one area. Homer is also the home of many artists and there are at least 7 galleries listed in their brochures - amazing for a town of 4500. Apparently it was a magnet for the hippies in the ‘60s and it looks like some of their habitations are still here. You can park your RV in any public space so the spit is quite a cluttered jumble of tourist attractions and RVs. But since we are at the end of the road on the ocean we stayed at Homer Spit Campground on the beach and were rocked to sleep by the sound of the lapping waves on the beach.

August 15, 2008
Kelsey is 15 years old today. She is acting like it the last couple days not feeling well. Her world is greatly diminished with the deafness and her eyesight is going as well. She needs to be near us all the time so she sees our movement and won’t lie outside the camper like she used to if we are inside.
Today at Homer, we are “where the land ends and the sea begins”. Now we start turning around. But there is still more Alaska and Yukon to see on the way home.
We have traveled 3850 miles. Fuel (diesel) at the end of the road in Homer is $1.38 a litre - not as high as we expected. We are getting 17.1 miles per gallon average since we left home (highway, mountains and city with a lot of stop and goes), so fuel costs have not been terrible. In fact, our camping costs have been half of the fuel cost. Campgrounds with services (power, showers, etc.) are not cheap here. There are cheap ones if you can dry camp.
Here is a word about our ability to use Alaskan technology. Our cell phone has rarely worked with their cell phone networks here. In fact, the only place the cell phone has worked was in Fairbanks and Anchorage. Thank goodness we can get internet at quite a few of the campgrounds we’ve been at. If they advertise WiFi, you have to ask to be close to the signal to pick it up. The antenna is usually is on their office which often houses the restroom facilities so that is handy anyway. We don’t have a television in the camper so are feeling a bit news deprived and are missing the Olympics. AM and FM radio comes and goes of course. We do have Sirius Radio but haven’t had signal on that. It is funny to see the satellite dishes here as they appear to be pointing down toward the ground. The locals have extra headlights the size of pie plates to enable them to see the moose on the road especially during the winter. Something else they have here that we enjoy are little caboose like buildings all over the place selling take out coffee and expressos and cappucinos.
It was socked in with fog this morning so we visited a few of Homer’s galleries and then proceeded back up the highway to Coopers Landing where we had heard there were bears fishing in the rivers. We did a 7 mile round trip bike trail up to Russian Falls. It was mostly uphill on the way in so was lots of exercise going up but fun coming down. We didn’t see bears there but we saw lots of salmon trying to jump up the falls so it was well worth the trip. Then we hiked another trail along the river for a couple of miles to where the Russian and Kenai River join and we saw a lot of fishermen and one black bear eating. Apparently there had just been a grizzly there as well. We noticed most of the fishermen carry bear spray and one guy actually had a rifle on his back. After seeing that, I didn’t think I really wanted to see a grizzly all that much after all. We camped at the Kenai Riverside Campground.

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Photos

Sun over the Glaciers
Notice how the sun shines over the glaciers when the rest of the sky is overcast. Amazing.

Us on the glacier cruise
in Prince William Sound

Sea Lions
they are really cute - they swim on their backs.

Fisherpeople on the Kenai
It's the silver salmon run.

Sockeye turn red
near the end of their life.